Report: Feds Yield on Organic Food Standards

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Report: Feds Yield on Organic Food Standards

The US Department of Agriculture, in the midst of writing regulations on just what constitutes organic foods, is bowing to heavy bioagriculture industry pressures on key issues such as allowable pesticide levels, Mother Jones magazine's online news site, MoJo Wire, reported today.

MoJo Wire published a May 1997 memo that details the department's decisions to ignore recommendations from the National Organic Standards Board on pesticide levels and other issues. The department memo said the board's standard on pesticides "establishes organic as being a 'safer' food, and our program is not a food-safety program."

Efforts to create standards for organic foods stem from a 1990 campaign by the organic-food industry to get government regulation to help win the confidence of consumers worldwide in the labeling of these natural foods. In passing the Organic Food Safety Act, Congress set up the board to hash out standards. Since the law was passed, the field of bioengineered foods has flourished, bringing with it newfangled produce such as brocaflower and produce that is no longer tied to a seasonal calendar.